Rufi Thorpe depicts the complexities and nuances of friendship so deftly in her novel The Girls from Corona del Mar that we couldn’t resist asking about her inspiration. The result was this intriguing top ten list!

Group Talk

A novel comprised entirely of dialogue? Dave Eggers has done it, and the results are captivating. Sample this extended excerpt from Eggers’s new novel to get a sense of the spectacular prose and its darkly humorous undertones.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is the focus of Dennis McFarland stunning Civil War novel, Nostalgia, the story of a nineteen-year-old private struggling to regain his identity. Here, McFarland shares the inspiration for some of the novel’s most remarkable aspects: its title, the portrayal of PTSD, and the inclusion of American poet Walt Whitman as a prominent character.

In this excerpt from her memoir My Salinger Year, Joanna Rakoff recounts discovering the identity of the writer whom people in the agency lovingly call “Jerry”—a revelation that will irrevocably change her life.

Immerse yourself in Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, yet another tour de force from the great Japanese writer Haruki Murakami! Learn about the musical piece that features most prominently in the novel, Franz Liszt’s “Le mal du pays,” and enjoy video clips of the piece being performed.

It’s time for the Reading Group Center Summertime R&R (Reading & Relaxation) Sweepstakes! Each month through August, we’ll be giving away a different set of titles for your reading pleasure. Enter the May edition here!

Academy Award® nominee Carey Mulligan stars in the role of fiercely independent Bathsheba Everdene in a new film adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Far from the Madding Crowd. This featurette devoted to the character of Bathsheba will have you lining up to see the movie with your book club!

Ian McEwan uses the art of fiction and his formidable powers as a writer to illuminate the human drama behind an unusual court case in The Children Act. Listen to an NPR interview to find out why McEwan thinks this story lends itself so well to exploration in the fictional realm.